LIWINEDAD

  We finally connected with Lieb Cellars on Oregon Road for our June club pick-up.  We picked up four wines, eight bottles in total, four from Lieb and four from Bridge Lane (Fig 01).  The Bridge Lane wine included a 2021 Chardonnay and a 2021 Ros é .  The 2021 Bridge Lane Chardonnay is a clean, unoaked, bright, with orchard fruit notes that should pair well with Blue Point Oysters or Steamers.  The 2021 Bridge Lane Ros é is Cabernet Franc based, perfect for sipping at a cocktail party on a deck overlooking the sound as the sun goes down.   Switching to the Lieb Cellars family of wines, the June club included two 2020 Lieb Estate Sparkling Rosé , which in history is a delicate bright, dry sparkling wine.   Lastly were two bottles of the Lieb Estate 2020 Cabernet Franc .   Traditionally the Franc is nicely oaked, with good tannins and a peppery finish.   The Cabernet Franc will pair well with a prime 28-day dry age Rib Eye.   Lieb provided some short tasting notes (Fig 02), an

  Today’s trip is the last wine pick-up for the second quarter, including a full tasting and lunch.  The expedition was longer, spanning about 175 miles and almost 7 hours around #northforkwinetrail (Fig 04).  Our first stop was for lunch at Braun Seafood , a place I have been looking to try for quite some time.   Braun is a full-service wholesale and retail seafood market but also expanded into a restaurant (Fig 01) in the same style as New Wave Seafood in Wantagh.   We had a leisurely lunch that was very well done, and a post just about the food will be coming out soon.     After lunch, we succeeded in picking up our Lieb Cellars June club selection (Fig 02).   The last stop of the day was at EV & EM Vineyards , which is a required revisit now that they have all the furniture and are fully open (Fig 03).  The different vibe from Laurel Lake Winery makes EV & EM well worth returning many times.  A full posting on this great visit will be posted shortly.  Lastly, while not o

  The next and final pick-up was in June, and since there was only one, we added lunch and a tasting.  The goal was to do a grab-and-go at Lieb Cellars , but regrettably, they were closed for a private event and could not hand off my club wine to me that day.   Fortunately, we made other stops and found a new food and wine place to visit.   We first stopped for lunch at On The Docks , a classic on-the-water place with a wide selection of menu items to satisfy everyone in our group.   This is the first time we have stopped here, and we will provide a separate posting on how good everything was (FIG 02).   Next was a full tasting at Clovis Point Vineyard & Winery , and a fine tasting it was with the details in an upcoming posting shortly (Fig 03).   Lastly was a quick dessert stop at a North fork Classic – The Magic Fountain - for a generous homemade Ice Cream sundae (Fig 04).  A great day with several discoveries which we will need to return to several more times.  FIG 02 - ON TH

  The second pick-up stop for the Mid-March pick-up expedition is at Lieb Cellars for their spring club portfolio.   Today's selection is two white and two red varietals times two for eight bottles (Figure 1).   Lieb Cellars club selection usually includes at least one wine from Bridge Lane .   The selection included two Bridge Lane 2021 White Merlot , two   Lieb Estate 2020 Chardonnay , two   Lieb Cellars 2020 Syrah (member-only), and two   Lieb Cellars 2019 Estate Merlot .   The Bridge Lane 2019 White Merlot is a light, easing-going wine that pairs well with larger gatherings and informal food.   Because it is from Bridge Lane, the White Merlot is also available in boxes and even kegs so big summer beach parties can rock on into the night.   The wine is bright, crisp, and usually, with good Grapefruit notes, reminiscent of a good New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.   The Lieb 2020 Estate Chardonnay is much more of an Oaked style Chardonnay in the Napa Valley genre of Chardonnay.  

  Time for the next round of pickups, and we were able to add in lunch and tasting at two new to us places.  Given that we were adding in at least one full tasting at a first visit winery, we decided to have a large lunch first to help buffer all the fine wine to follow.  So the first Stop was the Cooperage Inn for lunch, followed by pickups at Roanoke Vineyards , Lieb Cellars , Sparkling Pointe , Suhru Wines , and Terra Vite Winery & Vineyard (Figure 1).  In the past, we have stopped at the Cooperage inn but only to use their outside pickup window for NOFO Pot Pies (Figure 2).  We spent over an hour at lunch and then picked up five Pot Pies for friends and Family.  Lunch was fantastic, requiring a separate posting at the liwinedad-cooperage inn to discuss how enjoyable the lunch was.  Roanoke Vineyards, Lieb Cellars, and Sparkling Point were our classic drive-by pickups, except we also picked up for our friends at Roanoke and Sparkling Pointe, which quickly fill the SUV.  Each

  As part of the Lieb Cellars wine club quarterly pickup, one wine included a Bridge Lane 2020 Red Blend (Figure 1).   Bridge Lane is Lieb Cellars' second label but is not second best.   The Lieb Cellars produces rich and complex wines best shared with small groups of friends and family.   However, the Bridge Lane label is better with Backyard or Beach parties.   The Bridge Lane wines come packaged in Cans , Bottles , Boxes , and Kegs . The 2020 red blend is a Bordeaux style consisting of 52% Merlot, 23% Cabernet Franc, 9% Petit Verdot, 8% Malbec, and 6% Syrah(Figure 2).   The wine developed fully for six months in Hungarian Oak.   The result is a light, medium body, easy tannin, Black Cherry, and Bramble wine with a delicate hint of Oak.   It is an easy-going wine perfect for an upscale afternoon Bar-b-Que.   To that end, for dinner, we paired the wine with Beef short ribs immersed in Bar-B-Que sauce that was slow-cooked in a Dutch oven at 225 ⁰ F for over four hours (Figure

  Still working our way through the winter 2021 club shipments.  Next up is a Lieb Cellars - 2020 Estate Riesling .   The Lieb Riesling is a dry style of Riesling more common in Niederösterrich, Austria .  The color is a glistening pale straw and does not show any legs in the glass (Figure 1).  The nose is floral as if strolling through a dew-laced fruit orchard shortly after bud burst.  Most notable were stone fruit such as apricot and peach.  On the palate notes of Pineapple and Meyer, Lemon came forward with a slight trail of lime.  The acid was bright and sharp, without overpowering, with a nice crisp finish.  The Riesling should pair well with well-spiced meats and roast vegetables.  Lieb’s web description is attached here (Figure 2).   FIG 1 - LIEB CELLARS 2020 ESTATE RIESLING FIG 2 - LIEB CELLARS 2020 ESTATE RIESLING WEB DATA

  We were looking for a good red wine to pair with our Roast Beef dinner and found a Lieb Cellars - 2020 Estate Cabernet Franc in the cellar.   The color is dark, Garnet with the edges a slightly lighter Ruby with thin legs after breathing for about 30 minutes (Figure 1).   The nose opens with ripe red fruit such as Raspberries, a touch of Tobacco, and herbaceous notes.   Not surprisingly, the alcohol mild and does not overpower the delicate violet notes.   The mouthfeel is light to medium and easy on the Tannins.   Tart cherry notes come to the fore, followed by bramble, blackberry, and chili.   The finish is longer than expected, with some crushed gravel and a peppery end.   The Franc paired perfectly with the simple roast beef and red cabbage dinner (Figure 2) we were having as well as an unpaired sipping wine after dinner. The Cabernet Franc is an excellent daily wine, and we are looking forward to revisiting it.   The notes from Lieb Cellars web site are also attached (Figure

  We finally closed out all of our pick-ups for 2021, just in time to start the 2022 pick-ups.  LIEB Cellars was the last one for no other reason than our scheduling conflicts.  For December, the club selection is an eight-pack mix of four wines, two reds, and two whites from Lieb and Bridge Lane labels (Figure 1).  The split between the two labels is the perfect balance as we get both the fun, easy-drinking party wine along with the fine sipping wine to pair with dinner and share with friends.  Lieb does provide a short description of each wine, and is attached below (Figure 2).  In addition, there will be a forthcoming post about each wine.  The enjoyment and posting will be soon as these wines tend to be our daily wines.  1 - LIEB DECEMBER CLUB PICK-UP 2 - LIEB DECEMBER CLUB DESCRIPTION by Lieb

As our followers have noticed, this blog has been still for many months; nothing was wrong; the redoing of the front of our home kept us preoccupied and from wine country from the mid-summer till this week.  We are back on the road again, making the pick-up enjoying a few glasses of wine in the vineyards, and filling out the wine cellar for the coming holidays.  Good this Christmas day is at our home this year.  We had so many clubs and past club selections that we needed to do pick-ups on two separate trips.  Between the fall and winter club selection, we brought home over 100 bottles.  The first run on 19 Nov had us bringing home 44 bottles (Figure 1), and the 08 DEC run fetched 55 bottles from 9 wineries (Figure 2).  1 - 19 NOV 2021 WINE PICK-UP 2 - DEC 2021 WINE PICK-UP We still have Channing Daughters Winery and Wölffer Estate Vineyard for one more run before Christmas and delivery from Jamesport before we close out the year.  To balance all this fine Long Island wine, we also h

  Today is our first visit to Rose Hill Vineyards , and we explored the vineyards, enjoyed a tasting flight, and made a lunch out of their small plate's menu.  Rose hill was magnificent overall so that we will be returning.  Rose hill Vineyards is a new name to well-established winery Shinn Estates. Unfortunately, Jo and I did not have a chance to visit Shinn estates before the changeover, so we cannot highlight the differences but explored Rose Hill as a completely new winery.   The vineyard is easy to find as it is just down the road from Lieb Cellars on Oregon road.  The view over the vineyard is striking, peaceful, and relaxing [1]. There are many seating options, including an inside tasting room, a Patio (with massive umbrellas) [2] [4] [6] [9], and on the lawn under large covering sails [3] [5].   The inside tasting room is spacious, with a bar [20], shop [12], tables, and overstuffed couches to choose from [8].   The tasting room is festooned with many wine bottles and is